Monday, March 20, 2006
Bonus: The World's protected areas
For work I had to research some facts for my boss. He is dedicating the first Belgium National Park this week. Here is some of what I found;
- In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the world's first truly national park. Second National Park was in Australia, the Royal National Park established just south of Sydney in 1879. Third; in Canada, Banff National Park (then known as Rocky Mountain National Park) became Canada’s first national park in 1887. Fourth was New Zealand in 1887.
- In Europe the first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1910.
- After World War II, national parks were founded all over the world.
- At the end of 2005:
- Number of Protected sites (of all protection categories) in the world - 114,112
- Terrestrial area 136,327,524 km2
- Territorial Sea area 19,373,907 km2
- Total Territorial area 155,701,431 km2
- Australia has 3 of the top 10 largest parks
- Saudia Arabia has 2 in the top 10
- China also has 2 of the largest in the top 10
- Canada doesn't even have an entery in the top 20
- First International Park; 1932, Waterton National Park in Alberta Canada was joined with Montana's Glacier National Park to form the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
- World’s largest National Park; Tusarliivik, Greenland, 1985;
- World’s largest Marine Park; the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia at 350,000 sq km.
- Smallest National Park; St. Lawrence Islands National Park, Ontario, Canada, 1914, 8.7 sq km
- Hottest, Driest and Lowest National Park; Death Valley National Park. 86 meters below sea level, it is the driest place in North America with an average rainfall of only 5cm a year.
- Northernmost National Park, Quttinirpaaq National Park of Canada (Nunavut), Established 1985, also the northernmost point in Canada
- Southernmost National Park; Tierra del Fuego. 1960; 63,000 ha. The interior is overrun by North American beavers, Arctic reindeer, and European rabbits, European introduction.
- Most famous musical album named after a national park; Joshua Tree National Park (sorry, had to)
# posted by Us : 9:10 p.m.
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Hey OO, what about the total area of protected land per country? Does Canada make the top 20 in that catergory? :>
kmag.
kmag.
I am not sure Kristenn, but I did see that England is 10% National Park by surface area, and Canada is only 2.2% N.P. by surface area. But then it is also more important for England to protect its land right now while Canada is mostly empty.... for now.
Belgium's first national park;
Park Hoge Kempen
http://www.parkhogekempen.be/_ln/home.php
In Flanders, now Walloon needs one to keep up ;)
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Park Hoge Kempen
http://www.parkhogekempen.be/_ln/home.php
In Flanders, now Walloon needs one to keep up ;)
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